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Aerobic

We take in oxygen with the air we breathe. We can only survive for a few minutes without oxygen. At most. That makes humans aerobic, just like all the other organisms which need oxygen.

We take in oxygen with the air we breathe. We can only survive for a few minutes without oxygen. At most. That makes humans aerobic, just like all the other organisms which need oxygen.

Sugar and oxygen

Aerobic means ‘needing oxygen’ (O2). All aerobic organisms and micro-organisms use oxygen to convert sugars into energy. These sugars come from the food they consume. This process releases substances including carbon dioxide (CO2) which they breathe out again. The aerobic reaction looks like this:

sugars + oxygen (O2) --> carbon dioxide (CO2) + water (H2O) + energy

Aerobicity and humans

Some prokaryote and many eukaryote organisms are aerobic. Humans are as well. You breathe in oxygen. During the aerobic reaction, this is converted to CO2 which you breathe out. Bread dough rising is a familiar example of aerobic micro-organisms at work. There are yeasts in bread dough, baker’s yeast. These are single-cell fungi which convert oxygen into carbon dioxide (CO2). This causes the dough to rise and gives the bread its shape.